Inkjet technology has expanded its application to high-speed, commercial and industrial printing, in addition to home and office usage, because of its ability to produce economical, high quality, multi-colored prints. This technology is a non-impact printing method in which an electronic signal controls and directs droplets or a stream of ink that can be deposited on a wide variety of substrates. Current inkjet printing technology involves forcing the ink drops through small nozzles by thermal ejection, piezoelectric pressure or oscillation, onto the surface of a media.
In inkjet printing methods, print media play a key role in the overall image quality and permanence of the printed images. Thus, it has often created challenges to find media which can be effectively used with such printing techniques and which impart good image quality. Coated inkjet recording media have been developed for inkjet technology process. Such media have image-receiving layers, made of coating compositions, which are disposed onto media substrate. Inkjet recording media meet common requirements for printing media, but are often functionalize to improve inkjet characters with fast ink drying and fast ink absorption, high optical density, minimal spread (feathering or bleed) and sharp or clean edges (wicking or line edge raggedness). Though the above list of characteristics provides a worthy goal to achieve, there are often difficulties associated with satisfying all of the above characteristics. Accordingly, investigations continue into developing coating formulations that provide high quality printing media and, especially, that provide coating compositions that have a fast absorption rate towards ink printed thereon.